GIRLS RECREATIONAL SOCCER

Girl's soccer is one of our real successes. Girls stay in soccer well into their teens. The main reason is that we realize for girls who are playing recreational sports, playing with their friends is essential. Sport is a way of socializing. Enjoying soccer, the main goal of recreational soccer, means enjoying it with your friends. Girls who are very competitive may not think this way, but recreational players do.

This does create some problems. First, girls come to the team in groups - groups that interlink - often creating a team that is much too large. We try a much as possible to have girls playing with their friends. The second problem is that when girls come in groups, they often are the same age. With two year age divisions, this often results in teams that are the younger age or the older age, not an even blend. The older teams in a division tend to win more games, younger teams lose more. We recognize the problem. But playing with your friends is so important to staying in soccer, that players must accept that they will have a year when their team is younger and loses more and the next year when the team is older and wins more.

Mosquitos

This division is now a mixed division. It has girls and boys born in 1998 and 1999. Make sure the names of friends you wish to play with are clearly on your registration form. Talk to those girls to make sure their forms are the same. The games at this level are full size soccer games. There are 11 on the field, but 16 players on a team. The games are played at Grandview Arena Field. Games are Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Please note: Teams are not balanced by age. In these divisions, it is very important to the girls that they play with their friends. Since friends link with other friends and they all seem to be about the same age we end up with teams of older and younger groups. Older teams often win more games. However, if we tried to balance teams and not let girls play with their friends, most girls would not play. The social aspect of sport for girls is paramount. The price for this is unbalanced teams. Enjoy the playing and don’t worry about the score. (Easier said than done, eh!!)

There will be outside referees for Mosquito and Peewee games. These divisions are more competitive, and the rules more complicated, so an outside referee makes sense. Please respect the referee. Remember, everyone plays the game the referee sees, not the game the spectators or players see.

Players must be wearing shin guards in this division. It is probably a good idea to also have cleats for traction since the girls are faster and stronger. You should not be wearing any jewellery. An earring or a ring could get snagged by another player and get torn off. It is very dangerous.

Girl's Pee Wees (not running this year)

We did not have enough player sto make a Girls PeeWee division. The girls born in 1997 were allowed to go to the Mosquito division and the Girls born in 1996 were allowed to go into the Girls Bantam division.

There is a problem with players especially at the PeeWee age with language on the field. Parents are often not aware of this, but players and referees are and coaches should be. We have told our referees to send off players for unacceptable language. They should remain off for at least one shift. The coach should make clear his or her expectations as to language. In fact, if the coaches hear unacceptable language, they should be taking off the player themselves. Players should be aware that this is unacceptable behaviour.

Girl's Bantams

Volunteer Pool Soccer Club has a Bantam Division for girls born in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995. This allows us to continue offering soccer to the many girls who wish to play. We have extended the age group to include girls born in 1991. We had 4 teams last year. We have over twice as many girls playing soccer at the older levels in the club than we have boys. Girls Bantam games are played at the Superior Collegiate field on Mondays and Wednesdays. They will be playing against a Boys Peewee team some of their games.

In Volunteer Pool, our emphasis in playing recreational soccer is fun. For girls this means playing with their friends. We attempt to put all girls who want to be together on the same team.

One of the problems that occurs however, is that we can get more girls asking to play together than there are places on a team. There are only 18 players on a team. If you have a large group of friends that you wish to play with, talk to each other about who wishes to play with whom.